Peltigera (Peltigerineae, lichenized Ascomycota) is one of the most widespread lichen genera incorporating bi- and trimembered associations involving fungi, green algae (cf. Coccomyxa), and cyanobacteria (cf. Nostoc). A wide range of morphological and chemical (secondary compounds) variation at both the intra- and inter-specific levels is present in this genus. Compared to many other genera of macrolichens, its taxonomy, including chemotaxonomy, still remains poorly understood. Existing infrageneric classifications of Peltigera are almost exclusively based on photobiont composition of the thallus. These classifications assumed that bi- and tri-membered taxa were distinct monophyletic entities. The genus Peltigera has never been the focus of a com-prehensive phylogenetic study. The most recent and widely accepted subdivision of the genus into seven groups is based mainly on morphological and chemical characters. Relationships among species of Peltigera are investigated here using chemical, morphological, and large subunit nuclear ribosomal DNA (LSU nrDNA) data. We test the monophyly of these seven morpho-chemical Peltigera groups and propose a classification based on a phylogenetic approach. Data sets of 42 chemical characters (terpenoids), 31 morphological char-acters, and 1135 LSU nrDNA characters for 96 samples representing 38 Peltigera species, eight undescribed putative Peltigera species, and nine species from seven potentially closely related genera from Peltigerineae were subjected to maximum parsimony analyses. Morphological, chemical, and molecular analyses were carried

"... Aspergillus fumigatus is an anamorphic euascomycete mold with a ubiquitous presence worldwide. Despite intensive work to understand its success as a pathogen infecting immunosuppressed patients, the population dynamics and recent evolutionary history of A. fumigatus remain understudied. We examined ..."

Aspergillus fumigatus is an anamorphic euascomycete mold with a ubiquitous presence worldwide. Despite intensive work to understand its success as a pathogen infecting immunosuppressed patients, the population dynamics and recent evolutionary history of A. fumigatus remain understudied. We examined patterns of genetic variation at three intergenic loci for 70 natural isolates from Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The same loci were used to analyze within-population genetic variation for 33 isolates obtained from five geographic locations. Neither data set detected evidence of population differenti-ation or found any association between the genetic and geographic distances among these isolates. No evidence for genetic differentiation within the two A. fumigatus mating types was detected. The genetic diversity of A. fumigatus, contrasted with that of its close teleomorphic relatives, Neosartorya fischeri and Neosartorya spinosa, is remarkably low. Population genetic studies of fungal species have held ap-plied and theoretical interest since the first mycological appli-cation of molecular markers by Spieth in 1975 (51) and are now established as a vital component to accurate and complete understanding of a species ’ biology. With such data, global

"... The resolving power and statistical support provided by two protein-coding (RPB1 and RPB2) and three ribosomal RNA-coding (nucSSU, nucLSU, and mitSSU) genes individually and in various combinations were investigated based on maximum likelihood boot-strap analyses on lichen-forming fungi from the cla ..."

The resolving power and statistical support provided by two protein-coding (RPB1 and RPB2) and three ribosomal RNA-coding (nucSSU, nucLSU, and mitSSU) genes individually and in various combinations were investigated based on maximum likelihood boot-strap analyses on lichen-forming fungi from the class Lecanoromycetes (Ascomycota). Our results indicate that the optimal loci (single and combined) to use for molecular systematics of lichen-forming Ascomycota are protein-coding genes (RPB1 and RPB2). RPB1 and RPB2 genes individually were phylogenetically more eYcient than all two- and three-locus combinations of ribosomal loci. The 3rd codon position of each of these two loci provided the most characters in support of phylogenetic relationships within the Lecanoromyce-tes. Of the three ribosomal loci we used in this study, mitSSU contributed the most to phylogenetic analyses when combined with RPB1 and RPB2. Except for the mitSSU, ribosomal genes were the most diYcult to recover because they often contain many introns, resulting in PCR bias toward numerous and intronless co-extracted contaminant fungi (mainly Dothideomycetes, Chaetothyriomycetes, and Sordariomycetes in the Ascomycota, and members of the Basidiomycota), which inhabit lichen thalli. Maximum likelihood analysis on the combined Wve-locus data set for 82 members of the Lecanoromycetes provided a well resolved and well supported tree compared to existing phylogenies. We conWrmed the monophyly of three recognized subclasses in the Lecanoromycetes, the Acarosporomycetidae, Ostropomycetidae, and Lecanoromycetideae; the latter delimited as monophyletic for the Wrst time, with the exclusion of the family Umbilicariaceae and Hypocenomyce scalaris. The genus Candelariella (formerly in the Candelariaceae, currently a member of the Leca-

nn; rPhylogenetic analyses of 27 artillery fungus (Sphaerobolus sp.) isolates were conducted to identify species boundaries in the genus Sphaerobolus. Multiple gene genealogies inferred from maximum likelihood, Bayesian, and maximum-parsimony analyses of sequence data from individual loci (mtSSU, ITS, EF 1-, and LSU) and a combined dataset (mtSSU, ITS, and EF 1-) concordantly indicate the existence of three deeply divergent lineages in the genus Sphaerobolus, each representing a phylogenetic species. These three phylogenetic species correspond to two known species: Sphaerobolus iowensis and Sphaerobolus stellatus, and a newly discov-ered species. Suprageneric phylogenetic analyses of the mtSSU and LSU datasets containing representatives of related genera of the gomphoid–phalloid clade of Homobasidiomycetes suggested that the undescribed taxon likely is more closely related to S. stellatus than to S. iowensis.